Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
Dan Cray - Meridies
by Joe Ross, Blogcritics.org
The eight tracks on pianist Dan Cray?s Meridies project each run from five to seven minutes long, and that simple fact is the first indication that the full quartet (which includes tenor saxophonist Noah Preminger, drummer Mark Ferber, and bassist Clark Sommers) doesn?t believe in rushing things. Everyone gets a chance to shine in the arrangements which are very tight, yet humble and unassuming.
A moderately tempo-ed arrangement of Charles... read more
Rob Lockart - Parallel Lives
by Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz.com
The problem with saxophonist Rob Lockart's debut CD, Parallel Lives, is that it's hard to get past the opening cut, the America Songbook classic, Arthur Altman's "All Or Nothing At All." It's a problem of the sublime variety?this rendition of the familiar tune is magnificent. Lockart is locked into the emotion of the tune, the aching, sometimes searing uncertainty of the outcome of the ultimatum, the possibility of ending up on the wrong side of... read more
David Friesen Circle 3 Trio - Triple Exposure
by Hobart Taylor, KUCI - Irvine, CA
Bassist composer Friesen, Greg Gobel, pianist, and drummer, Charlie Doggett, play the most elegant of chamber jazz. The jazz trio, like the string quartet in classical music, is an ideal form for balance between solo and ensemble play. Friesen, long a recognized virtuoso, gently leads the tunes but does not overwhelm them. Check out "Rainbow Song" for a very special tour de force.... read more
Richard Sussman - Live at Sweet Rhythm
by Kyle O'Brien, Oregon Jazz Scene
Pianist and composer Sussman has gotten the band back together. The band here is called the Free Fall Reunion Band. "Free Fall" was the 1978 album that the group recorded together, which reviewed well in Down Beat. The members of the group went their separate ways, including Sussman, who became both a synth and piano sideman and also an educator at the Manhattan School of Music. In 2003, the group reunited for a gig in New York, and the... read more
Marlene Rosenberg - MLK Convergence
by Paul de Barros, Downbeat (HOT BOX)
MLK Convergence showcases Chicago bass stalwart Marlene Rosenberg's muscular sound, rocksteady time and imaginative solo ideas far better than her first Origin recording, 2012's Bassprint. The title of this recent recording comes from the "convergence" of Dr. King's initials with those of her star-studded trio—Marlene, Lewis (Nash) and Kenny (Barron). It's also an allusion to the album's affirmative theme of social justice.
Hope emanates... read more
Jeff Johnson - The Art of Falling
by Jon Davis, Expose
Bassist Jeff Johnson is one of the regulars in the Origin Records stable, and these two releases see him as leader, first of a trio with drummer Billy Mintz and reedman Hans Teuber, then with a quartet, adding pianist Randy Porter. Most of the selections on both are Johnson originals, with a few covers (Wayne Shorter, Henry Mancini, even Glenn Miller) thrown in. Johnson seems to favor a relatively free setting, using the composed tunes as... read more
Geof Bradfield - Our Roots
by Howard Dukes, South Bend Tribune
Geof Bradfield knows that jazz music is the last thing that comes to mind when some people think of the musician Leadbelly.
Leadbelly was a folk and blues singer and multi-instrumentalist best known for such songs as "Take This Hammer," "Midnight Special," "Cotton Fields" and "Goodnight Irene," and on the surface, the music of Leadbelly has nothing in common with the kind of small-combo jazz that Bradfield plays with the quintet he will... read more
Brad Goode - The Unknown
by Rick Anderson, CD Hotlist
As regular readers know, my strong preference in jazz is for the straight-ahead and swinging, and I particularly tend not to gravitate towards funk- or progressive jazz. Nothing against those styles, they just don't generally speak to me. But this album by trumpeter and composer Brad Goode really connected for me — in part because his funkiness is crunchy and complex rather than poppy, in part because his tone is exquisite, and in part because... read more
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